Why Jose Mourinho Is the Ideal Man to Succeed Roberto Mancini at Manchester City

Manchester City are on track to lose their Premier League title, and Roberto Mancini is now a man under severe pressure to hold onto his job. There is a quick and easy solution to all the Citizens' troubles—Jose Mourinho.

It is no secret that Mourinho is under pressure at Real Madrid. The club have long since forgotten about the romance, mysticism and sheer hard work that must go in to producing a great team. The current hierarchy seem more interested in the economic side of the game rather than the playing side and as a result Jose has found himself outside the tent looking in.

He needs to leave sooner rather than later.

There can be little doubt that the Portuguese is the right man to succeed Mancini at the Etihad. While he has courted controversy at every club he has managed, he has the pedigree and management record that guarantee his teams will contest for titles and most importantly the Champions League.

Manchester City have been poor his season. Despite their current standing of second place in the Premier League on 53 points, a gargantuan 12 points behind Manchester United, they have flattered to deceive.

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The shocking Champions League form that saw the richest club in world football eliminated from the competition at the group stage without a single win, has been carried over into domestic action. As such, the feeble surrendering of their title to Sir Alex Ferguson's team has been nothing less than abject considering the high hopes in August.

Their form this term is in direct contrast to the swashbuckling, attacking and fearless team that swept to the title last season.

The main reason for this lowering of standard falls at the feet of just one man—Roberto Mancini.

In this table, using statistics from EPL Index, one can easily see where City have dropped off from the high standards they set last season.

EPL Index Stats

2011-12

2012-13

Goals Conceded

0.76

0.92

Ground 50/50s

50%

49%

Aerial 50/50s

54%

50%

Passing

83%

82%

Passing Forward

43%

34%

Def Zone Passing

93%

93%

Atk Zone Passing

78%

77%

Crossing

22%

24%

Shots on Target

48%

47%

Shot Conversion

18%

14%

Clear Cut Conversion

43%

36%

Points Per Game

2.34

2.03

These statistics clearly show a reduction in output from the entire Manchester City team from last season.

When you consider that Manchester United will probably turn out to be one of the worst teams to ever win the Premier League, City's decline is even worse.

This situation and degeneration from title challengers to also-rans seems to have split the dressing room in half at the Etihad. After City's latest defeat Roberto Mancini lambasted his players for their poor performances and then had another go at Brian Marwood for not signing the players he wanted last summer.

He said: "When you are a top player you should take responsibility. It's not always the fault of the manager. The players should take the responsibility, if they have big balls. If not, they can't play in a top team." (per the Independent)

Before ominously adding a remark for Marwood, "We did some mistakes in the summer and didn't improve our team."

The response from the playing side of City was almost immediate with an unnamed source telling the Metro that the players "want Patrick Vieira to take over."

Quite simply that slide needs to be halted rapidly and the split needs to be repaired and the man to do it is Jose Mourinho.

This table from Premier Soccer Stats compares Jose Mourinho's management record in the Premier League to his nearest and greatest rivals. It shows that the Portuguese has pound-for-pound the best record of all time in the league.

The table also shows that Manchester City are on course for an expected season under Roberto Mancini, and that last season's title win could be attributed to City playing above their normal levels under the Italian.

Won

Draw

Lost

Points Per Game

Jose Mourinho

85

25

10

2.33

Roberto Mancini

75

26

21

2.06

Arsene Wenger

358

158

109

1.97

Sir Alex Ferguson

520

165

112

2.16

Mourinho has a proven track record for getting results and winning trophies at every single one of his clubs.

Since 2002 he has won no less than 19 trophies across four teams—Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid. He has won the league title in all four countries and most importantly has won the UEFA Champions League twice, first with Porto in 2004 and then with Inter in 2010.

Mourinho has not gone a full calendar year without winning at least one trophy since he began his management career in 2002.

Perhaps the most telling contribution of all is his legacy of improving players. Think of the improvements in the likes of Hulk, Damien Duff, Frank Lampard, John Terry, Diego Milito and Wesley Sneijder. Then think of the intelligent deployment of Claude Makélelé at Chelsea, Javier Zanetti and Esteban Cambiasso at Inter and Costinha, Deco and Maniche at Porto.

Going further, Mourinho's patented 4-2-3-1 formation has become the template across the world since he first employed it to great effect with Porto.

This simple economic formation breaks the pitch up into four sections. From there Mourinho buys specialists rather than all-round midfielders, which are much harder to come by at the highest level.

The 4-2-3-1 system intelligently only uses one striker. As players of high quality in this position are a very rare commodity it means this formation only needs three strikers for a squad instead of four to five with other systems.

At no stage during the Roberto Mancini reign have City looked a settled team. The Italian has always had a blind spot for their weakness in both full-back positions. Their lack of a midfield general, despite generally playing a variation of a 4-4-2, has always been their undoing in the Champions League. It also played a huge part in their surrendering of the Premier League this season.

City are sliding back to the levels one would expect of an expensively put-together team.

In short, they are not United in any way, shape or form of the word.

Jasper Juinen/Getty Images

Roberto Mancini and Jose Mourinho

Jose Mourinho is the man to bring the title back to the blue half of Manchester. He is the obvious choice to succeed Mancini.

He has succeeded Mancini once before already at Inter Milan in 2008. Within two years he had improved upon the Italian's team and won Serie A in 2008-09 and 2009-10, the Coppa Italia in 2009-10 and the Champions League in 2009-10 for an almost unprecedented treble.

If Sheik Mansour wants to wrestle the title away from Sir Alex Ferguson's hands he need only look towards Jose Mourinho.